Vanessa Lanham-Day  runs CProject, which is a small Surrey-based marketing and communications consultancy.  She works for a lot of financial planners and IFAs, as well as all sorts of SME businesses.

She describes herself as a “no-nonsense, practical marketer”, and says “Sorting the brand strategy and the big picture planning side of things is right up my street, but so too is the detail of implementation. I really enjoy getting stuck in and being part of my client’s team.”

Vanessa is currently working with Nigel Botterill and his team at the Entrepreneur’s Circle, and told me how she got to that point

“In 2003 I decided to cut my team right back and give myself the ultimate freedom of working on my own. It has been a really liberating experience – enabling me to try other business options, including building a property portfolio and owning retail knitwear business. I especially enjoyed building up our online knitwear business from scratch seeing customers grow from zero to over a thousand today.

It’s a very different marketing to business to business, and it has helped me support a number of retail clients as a result.
I recently have sold the knitwear business and am now really excited about working more closely with Nigel and his team Being a Business Growth Advisor fits perfectly with my interest in mentoring growing businesses and means I can offer my marketing experience to the people who really need it, without having to worry if they can afford me!

On a personal note, I’m married to the gorgeous – and very patient! – Steve. We’ve been together since 1978 but only married in 2003 – after I proposed to him. We tied the knot on our 25th anniversary in a surprise wedding! I love doing outdoor things and being in the gym – often to be seen on my road bike too. I may not be that talented but enthusiasm counts for a lot!”

She’s a great candidate to speak to us at the Horsley Network this month as she’s been awarded the prestigious title of Business Growth Advisor of the Year for 2011 – due in no small part, I’m assured, by absolute passion for helping business owners achieve their potential and dreams.

Happy New Year to you all

2012 has started with some ferocious weather, and plenty of stories of financial doom in the papers. – But in this Olympic year, how are you and your business feeling?

After a fantastic 10 day break over Christmas, i’m ready to go back to work, but my son isn’t back at school yet, so instead of sitting at the computer all morning, we got up early and were at Wisley for just after it opened, to blow the cobwebs away, get some exercise and get inspiration flowing.

With the rain pouring down and the wind lashing the trees, we had the place almost to ourselves. During storms, we explored the Glasshouse rootzone on our own and in detail (ignoring the one way signs!), and choose Seed potatoes in the Plant Centre. In between the rain, we made it to the top of the fruit mound and had fantastic views out onto the empty gardens, and over the London storm cloud horizon.

Because we ventured out when everyone else had stayed inside, we were ahead of the queues, we got to see more detail than normal, and when the rain stopped, we got the best views. We did get wet, but nothing that a cup of coffee and dry clothes couldn’t solve.

I think that this year in business is going to be very much like a rainy day. It’s easier and more comfortable to stay inside and not get wet, but if you venture out you’ll be ahead of everyone else when the rain stops.

Our speaker last night was Ann Wright from Roughhouse media. With over 20 years experience as a Journalist and TV producer, she had some fascinating insights to give us on how to get yourself as a small business into a position with the media, so that your story and opinion is used.

We learnt about the difference between a Pitch and a Press Release, and who the relevant media are to aim at.

How to find a good story, – They often include Statistics, Tips, Open days, Charity involvement or pegs and hooks.

We found out that Puff pieces are no good, – you need a real story preferably with a Human interest angle.

And we learnt what should be already organised in your media toolkit before you try getting a story out there.

Above all we learnt that journalist are busy people. To attract their attention, you need to be in the right place at the right time, to give them all the information that is needed, including a great Top line which will catch their eye, and become someone that they know can give a valued opinion.

Roughhouse  offer bespoke media strategy sessions, which look in detail at your business, working out the best target audience/media, building up contacts lists, making sure the media toolkit works, coming up with story ideas and working out the best pitch for you. They also have a blog with loads of useful ideas and tips or follow Ann on Twitter at @Roughhouse01

If you’d like Ann’s notes from last night, – including what should be in your media toolkit, – please let me know claire@horsleynetwork.co.uk and Ann has kindly agreed that I can pass them on.

Our last months survey gave us some great insights into the habits of local buyers.

We asked about the main factors that would dissuade you from buying locally

70.6% of respondants said that insufficient range was something that made them look elsewhere

64.7% said that cost was and issue

and the next most burning issues, both with 23.5% of repliers saying these were issues were Opening times, – and that they had reliable suppliers elsewhere.

The list of things that that people said that they couldn’t get in the villages of Horsley and within 5 miles, was fairly numerous, but we divided it into those we knew supplier for, and those we didn’t (and a crazy list, – we had a good giggle over the Camel racing and ladies corsets)

List 1- please if you know of a supplier locally, let us know in the comments and we’ll publisise it, but we couldn’t find

Computer accessories, Specialist printer cartridges, It hardware, Mobile phone accessories, Bookshop, Technical drawing equipment and large size 112gsm gateway paper, Childrens sports clothes, Sports shop, Alexander technique lessons

List 2 – these were items that our respondants couldn’t find, but we’ve searched out suppliers

Smoked Salmon – both Conisbee’s and the Pink footed Goose. Quality Stationary – Blue Kangeroo and the Post office. Family gym – The Horsley towers has a swimming pool and children are welcome at weekends. Lamps and lighting – are for sale in Nest in Ripley, Plumber there are several in the Horsley directory. A decent early breakfast – ok not yet, – Robin get a move on. Fishing tackle – is availble in Albury which is just inside the 5 miles. Pet supplies – our very own Gareth has Dolittle pet supplies at the Ripley nursery, and there is a pet shop at Squires. Haberdashers/ Hardware – not a full range, but lots stocked at the back of the post office.

So how do you ensure that local buyers know what you want to promote?

We’ll be looking at customer perception in a session early next year, – but give us your views

Over the last few weeks, we’ve had a survey out to find out what Horsley people think about Buying Locally. We wanted it to be all about the best of the goods and services locally, what makes people buy locally and what makes them go further afield. We had some great and telling results, about what Horsley customers want from their local business. Last night’s meeting was a great discussion about the results, so i’ll write about some of our conversations over the coming weeks, – But today I thought it very important to publish the winners.

These are local business’s and people in Horsley and the surrounds that were mentioned in our survey as contributing the most and being the best.

With at least one mention we had

Connisbee’s Butcher, Fishmonger in Bookham, West Horsley post office, Gareth Thomas Dolittle Pet supplies, Ken Davy Butcher, Paul Ballard at 3di, Dobies florists, Spring Reach Nursery, Squires Garden Centre, Mortiboys, Donnel beauty therapist, Bishopsmead post office, Blue Kangeroo, Ripley Farm shop, Kirthon, Pink Garlic,  Parkers at Effingham, Ash at Costcutters,  &Newsagents in East Horsley.

Our Silver winners, with at least 3 mentions as appreciated local business’s

Charles Paine Grocers in West Horsley, Lawrence at the Pink Footed Goose, The Library, The Bakery, Claire Brown Plantpassion and Su Johnston Grace and Flavour

and our outright Gold winner with 7 votes and lots of praise for his service

Robin Johnston for the Station coffee shop.

Well done Robin and everyone else with a mention.

So you know that Social media is there to help your business get known, – you’ve been told that Blogging would be a good idea, but what is it? and how should you start? Our very own Fiona Humberstone is a blogging expert, and her stylish blog is full of ideas, but here is one of her blog posts from last year about key features to think about when starting out.

I’ve been blogging now for 2 1/2 years and have been on a journey that’s taken me from writing passionately to no-one to having a regular daily audience who (thank you, lovely readers) interact and respond to me. I’m often asked by clients how they can get the best out of their blogs, and so here are my top tips on how your blog can win you more business. I hope you’ll see that it’s not rocket science. It’s just about persistence, passion and authenticity.

Embrace the design. We’re visual creatures. Give us a lovely looking blog and we’ll want to stay and chat. Expect us to read something unattractive and it doesn’t matter how compelling your words, we’ll struggle. One of my all time favourite blogs is Decor8. Some of you may find the style OTT, that’s fine. You can’t win em all. Personally I love it! It’s beautiful!

Use twitter and other social networking tools to tell people about what you’re blogging! Driving traffic to your blog is one of the main points about this – don’t post day after day and not tell people what you’re doing! Install a Plugin to push links to your posts (not spam) into your twitter/ facebook/ linkedin accounts.

Make it easy for others to retweet your post if they find it useful. TweetMeMe does this well.

Add an inspiring (non-cheesy) image to every post. And I find the bigger the better, so mine take up the full width of my post window. Reject cheesy stock photo images and find some that really inspire your readers.

Post regularly. 2-3 times a week is good, every day is better. We always used to get frustrated with my mum when she first got her mobile phone because she’d never have it on her when we tried to call her. “But no one ever calls me on it” she’d say. “Well why do you think that is?” we’d retort! Eventually she started taking her phone out with her and we started calling her on it. It’s the same with blogging. You have to persevere. You might be writing to no one to start with, but if you write with passion and conviction then your audience will find you! And you don’t have to sit down and write every day – most blogging platforms enable you to schedule posts, so you can be writing while you’re away!

Give plenty of advice. That’s what people come for. But beware of lecturing or patronising. They won’t thank you for that.

Use your comments and retweet mechanisms for direct feedback on what your readers want. I learned that people want to see what we’ve been up to, which is why I regularly run my “In the studio this week…” feature.

For those who’d like more help with Blogging, Fiona does regular workshops, – more details here

Our talk from Jon Machtynger last week was great, about the large amount of social media methods that can be used to help business’s communicate in efficient ways, – but if you havn’t started yet, – should you? – do you need to? – and how do you? – Thanks to Karen Skidmore of CanDoCanBe, – for this article, published on her blog, which may help those of you trying to make up your minds

Up and down the country, there appears to be a domino effect.  Advertising agencies, marketing departments, web masters – they all seem to be bolting on “Like Me” Facebook buttons and “Follow Me on Twitter” links to websites.

People are being friended on Facebook by national carpet companies and major coffee chains. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be friends with these sorts of brands. And certainly don’t consider carpet companies or coffee chains to be on my Christmas card list this year.

Many of these campaigns seem to be knee jerk reactions to the media frenzy surrounding social networks and the CEO’s or Marketing Director’s demand to keep up with the times. If it’s there, we must use it!

There is no doubt that social media can be a very powerful communication channel. When used right, it can harness the power of raving fans who promote links to your latest promotions without you even having to ask them, let alone pay them.

And platforms such as Twitter provide an excellent way of searching and finding negative feedback about your products, giving you the opportunity to reach out and solve these problems.

So, are these new social networks critical new ways of communicating with your customers? Or are they the Emperor’s new clothes – the next new shiny thing to add to the marketing mix, that doesn’t really work?

Before jumping on the bandwagon, here are some essential points to consider:

1. Your Customers: Is social media an appropriate channel to communicate with them?  How are they using Facebook?  Are they signed up to Twitter? And are they using these platforms to connect with brands? It’s essential you do the right market research before embarking on a social media project, so start with your current customers. It will save you money and months of time and energy.

2. Your competitors: Just because your major competitors are doing it, doesn’t mean you have to. This “copy them” mentality is the reason why certain advertising media, such as The Yellow Pages, have survived as long as they have. Yes, innovation can make you stand out but do your market research first, rather than race to be one step ahead just to have the Twitter logo on your leaflets.

3. Your current marketing strategy: The danger of jumping in to social media unprepared is that it can be an all consuming activity. Many businesses will take resources out of one area of their marketing mix before starting something new. And if you take away resources from something that works already, only to get sucked in to the new technology hype – it could put you back even further. Add social media – don’t replace it with something that works already just because it’s “old hat”.

4. Your website: If you have a standard brochure-type website, bolting on the Twitter and Facebook logo on to the home page is just not going to cut it. Why would you want to direct traffic away from your own site, in the first place?! Take a step back and work out why your customers would want to “like” you on Facebook or go check out your Twitter feed. What value are you creating? And how can this add to your online visitor’s journey?

5. Your outcome: Have clear goals and objectives to your social media plan. What results are you expecting? And how are you going to measure them? Just because something looks cool or pretty, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s adding to your bottom line. Social media is not a place to do hard sales, but it’s got to have a return on your investment.

Social media is here to stay, so don’t continue to ignore it. Brands are no longer dominating the web and it’s the customers who are having their say (just check out sites like Trip Advisor or Amazon to realise how powerful customer testimonials and complaints can be).

But don’t have a knee jerk reaction to social media and just bolt on that Facebook page and Twitter account. Because if you do, it won’t work and you will end up with the Emporer’s new clothes!

Our talk last night was by Jon Machtynger.

As Lotus CTO for IBM, ( that’s chief technical officer, – or clever bod that does lots with information and computers to those like me who’ve never been had a corporate life) he is brilliantly based to give us an understanding of how a multinational corporation uses Social media, both internally and externally to promote themselves, AND how those same principals and tools can be used by companies with 1, 3 or 30 people.

Jon gave us 40 minutes of information, anecdotes and videos of how social media is being used in IBM, and elsewhere, and how to get used to promoting yourself in a way that everyone can see that is on brand and fits with your company guidelines, and what differences it can make to a “traditional” hierarchy in a company (basically does away with it)

As someone who loves social media for my one (wo)man band, Jon was preaching to the converted, but for me the key points I picked up were.

• Social Media is fun – keep playing to find what’s right for you, and don’t be afraid to move on
• You need strong connections and weak connections – friends and family are great strong support, but you need weak “friends” on social media that are in completely different fields/mindsets from you, so that you can get additional information, and direct honest feedback
• Information sharing is not altruistic,  sharing information serves your selfish ends by meaning that you don’t have to give the same stuff again and again on a one to one basis, by a more intrusive mean (email or phone)
• Social media is almost instant, – if your network is big enough, there will be enough help at all times
• Don’t start without a plan of what you are trying to acheive, – how many contacts do you want, what is a good contact, how do you want to appear online.

His conclusion was that almost all business’s would benefit ( we had a discussion about retail &  hotels and there were suggestions for all companies, if not all employees) from having internal and /or external social media in some form.

Those of you that have come to one of the meetings at Horsley Park over the the last few months, will know that that there are fantastic grounds surrounding the Conference and hotel buildings, and the De Vere team will be putting them to good use this weekend at their Family Fun day on Sunday 24th July. Lauren from Horsley Towers has sent me all the details, – please see below

Following the success of last year’s event, we would like to welcome you back for an afternoon of fun and games between 12-4pm in the beautiful grounds of Horsley Park. In aid of the Variety Club, the children’s charity. There will be attractions for all the family, a mouth watering BBQ, refreshments and the opportunity to view the historic towers dressed at her best.

• Bungee run
• Bouncy Castle
• Pedal kart racers
• Human table football
• Giant Garden games
• Face Painting
• Apple Bobbing
• Beat the keeper
• And many more including a selection of stalls from the local community.

All proceeds raised will go to our nominated Charity, Variety Club. We look forward to seeing you there.
Admission £2.50 per Adult &
Children FREE
Booking Essential, to secure your place please call Kathryn Drury on 01483 284211 or email kdrury@deverevenues.co.uk

Have you ever noticed that you see things when you walk places that you don’t see when you’re driving past?

The Horsley Towers Devere Venue, is so well hidden that even if you walk along the Ockham Road South, you might well miss it

But hidden behind the wonderful lovelace flint walls and cottages near East Horsley parish church of St Martin’s is the entrance to a large hotel and conference centre complex, with a world of history.

This is the main entrance of the Historic Victorian Mansion built in 1828.This Horsley Towers building is a great setting for a Wedding, and is also our Horsley Business network venue.

There is also a Modern Hotel/Conference centre, complete with guest rooms plus meeting and syndicate rooms, and the Courtyard area which is the converted old house stables, which provides more guest accommodation and meeting rooms.

If you are a Surrey Based business that needs to hold meetings or conferences, Horsley Towers may be the location for you. – Come along to the next Network meeting and get your first view of this hidden venue.